BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Stellantis are building a shared software platform

A shared foundation, different cars

The collaboration focuses on an open-source software foundation that manufacturers can use beneath their own operating systems, services and driving functions.

At its centre is Eclipse S-CORE, short for Safe Open Vehicle Core. The project aims to create open, secure and modular core software for SDVs, especially for high-performance vehicle computers and coordination between their processors. In simple terms, it concerns the layer where the vehicle gathers data, shares it between domains, runs functions and creates the basis for over-the-air updates.

Why are rivals suddenly working together?

The reason is cost and complexity. BMW itself has said that a modern car can contain hundreds of millions of lines of software code. If every manufacturer builds every base layer from scratch, Europe’s car industry wastes money in areas where the customer will never notice the difference. BMW development chief Frank Weber put it plainly: cooperation makes sense in those parts of software that do not create a competitive advantage.

It is the same logic the car industry has used for decades with common standards for brakes, charging connectors, diagnostics and safety systems. The difference is that in the 2020s, a car’s value no longer comes only from its battery, motor and vehicle platform. Value is moving into software: driver assistance, charging optimisation, battery thermal management, voice control, data services and remote fleet diagnostics.

S-CORE wants to be Europe’s answer to fragmentation

The Eclipse Foundation and the VDA announced in January 2026 that their automotive open-source software initiative had grown to 32 companies. The original participants included BMW, Bosch, ETAS, Hella, Mercedes-Benz, Qorix, Valeo, Vector, Volkswagen and ZF. The group has since been joined by Stellantis, Qualcomm, Red Hat, LG Electronics, T-Systems, Infineon, Schaeffler and Traton, among others.

That list shows the project does not belong to a single carmaker. S-CORE aims to be a neutral technical foundation on which BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Stellantis can build their own distinctive systems. Mercedes will continue with MB.OS, which brings infotainment, automated driving, body and comfort functions, driving functions and charging under one digital architecture. Stellantis, meanwhile, is developing STLA Brain, which the group describes as its global scalable electronics and software platform.

For Volkswagen, the logic is especially clear

Volkswagen has experienced the complexity of automotive software more publicly than most in recent years. CARIAD was meant to create a group-wide digital backbone for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and the group’s other brands, but software problems delayed several model programmes. A shared open base layer will not solve everything, but it does reduce the pressure to develop every low-level component in-house.

This points to a larger strategic concern for Europe’s manufacturers. Tesla and Chinese carmakers built much of their software identity from the beginning around centralised computing architectures. European carmakers came from a world in which dozens of electronic control units, suppliers and model-specific solutions lived side by side in the same vehicle. The software-defined car requires a different mindset: fewer control units, more central computers, faster testing and a closer link to cloud services.

This is not the death of AUTOSAR

BMW stresses that Eclipse SDV does not replace AUTOSAR, but complements it. That matters, because AUTOSAR has long been one of the core standards in the automotive industry’s electrical and electronic architecture. S-CORE approaches the problem from another angle: not just specifications, but working code that participants can review, improve and use in production programmes.

The VDA calls this a “code-first” approach. In practice, it means the industry is not merely writing a thick standards document, but developing executable software modules. That fits the rhythm of modern software development better, where testing, integration and security auditing have to happen continuously, not only at the end of a vehicle programme.

The timeline stretches towards 2030

According to Eclipse and the VDA, S-CORE reached its first public 0.5 release in November 2025. The full release is expected in 2026, and the project is targeting vehicle programmes due to reach the market by 2030 at the latest. That timing makes sense: the electronic architecture of a new-generation car has to be locked in years before series production begins.

So there is no point expecting the next BMW 3 Series, Mercedes CLA or Volkswagen ID. model to suddenly use the same software core overnight. The impact will come gradually. First, the shared components will appear in development environments, test platforms and base modules, and only later in production cars.

What does the buyer actually gain?

The buyer will not see an S-CORE logo on the centre console. For them, the impact should appear elsewhere: fewer software bugs, more stable over-the-air updates, driver-assistance functions arriving more quickly and better digital servicing. If manufacturers no longer have to build base components from scratch for every project, they can spend more money on the things that genuinely change a car’s character.

Mercedes can differentiate itself through a luxurious, tightly integrated MB.OS experience. BMW can keep its focus on driving dynamics, charging planning and a driver-oriented user interface. Volkswagen can scale solutions from Škoda to Porsche. Stellantis needs the same foundation across the very different price points of Peugeot, Opel, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep and its other brands.

For Europe, this is a defensive move

Europe’s car industry is not taking this step out of convenience. It is doing so to avoid a future in which software platforms move into the hands of US and Asian tech companies, leaving traditional manufacturers as suppliers of bodies, chassis hardware and brand badges.

S-CORE gives Europe a chance to keep part of its software sovereignty in its own hands. It will not turn BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Stellantis into one manufacturer. But it may help them stop solving the same problem four times over. That could prove just as important as the next leap in battery energy density or a new 800-volt platform.